. Ox-team days on the Oregon Trail /by Ezra Meeker ; revised and edited by Howard R. Driggs. of the unbrokenprairie in eastern Oregon. a young man approached, driving eight harnessed told me that he had harrowed in thirty-five acres otwheat that day, and that it was just a common days workto plow seven acres of land. I recalled my boyhood days when father spoke approv-ingly if I plowed two acres a day, and when to harrow tenacres was the biggest kind of a days work. I also recalledthe time when we cut the wheat with a sickle, or maybewith a hand cradle, and threshed it out with horse
. Ox-team days on the Oregon Trail /by Ezra Meeker ; revised and edited by Howard R. Driggs. of the unbrokenprairie in eastern Oregon. a young man approached, driving eight harnessed told me that he had harrowed in thirty-five acres otwheat that day, and that it was just a common days workto plow seven acres of land. I recalled my boyhood days when father spoke approv-ingly if I plowed two acres a day, and when to harrow tenacres was the biggest kind of a days work. I also recalledthe time when we cut the wheat with a sickle, or maybewith a hand cradle, and threshed it out with horses on thebarn floor. Sometimes we had a fanning mill, and how itwould make my arms ache to turn the crank! At othertimes, if a stiff breeze sprang up, the wheat and chaff wouldbe shaken loose and the chaff would be blown away. Ifall other means failed, two stout aims at either end of ablanket or a sheet would move the sheet as a fan to cleanthe wheat. Now we see the great combination harvestergarner thirty acres a day, and thresh it as well and sack it 180 Ox-Team Days on the Oregon Trail. On the Overland Trail Again 181 ready for the mill or warehouse. There is no shocking, nostacking or housing: all in one operation, the grain is madeready for market. As we journeyed eastward, the Blue Mountains canieinto distant view. Half a days brisk travel brought us wellup toward the snow line. The country became less broken,the soil seemed better, the rainfall had been greater. Webegan to see red barns and comfortable farmhouses, stillset wide apart, though, for the farms are large. As the Walla Walla valley was reached, the scenechanged. Smaller farms became the rule and orchards wereto be seen everywhere. We now passed the historic spotwhere the Whitman massacre occurred in 1847. Soonafterward we were in camp in the very heart of thethriving city of Walla Walla. It was near here that I hadmet my lather when I crossed by the Natchess Pass Trailin 1854. Another days travel brought us to
Size: 1403px × 1780px
Photo credit: © The Reading Room / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1920, booksubjectoverlan, bookyear1922
